Where Do You Go With Your Wisdom? Don’t Waste It On An 88-year Old Retirement Model.
Image by Georgi Dyulgerov from Pixabay
Shouldn’t we, as “modern elders” be marrying our wisdom to others, somehow, someway?
We’ve piled up 30, 40, 50 years of it. Where does it make sense to hoard it, warehouse it, let it go stale?
OK, so you don’t feel like you are wise.
Wrong, dear friend!
You have your own individual wisdom, a mash up of all your victories, defeats, exhilarations, embarrassments.
Personally, I feel I’ve earned a masters degree in screw ups and a doctorate in toe-stubbing.
But, I claim no failures. It’s all just been a long string of research and development.
One of my failures, some would say, was that I missed that road sign that said “Detour 65. Please move to the sidelines, get out of the way, and take it easy.”
I often wonder what it would be like for me today if I had bought the traditional retirement Kool-Aid.
I can only conjecture, but there’s a part of me that still wants to avoid challenge, problems, or leaving the comfort zone. At my core, I’m as likely a candidate as those who succumb to the temptation to grab hold of this semi-entitlement and hop on to an ever accelerating downward curve.
We’ve all got this part in us. In fact, Steven Pressfield wrote a whole book on it: “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.” He calls it “the resistance” and “genius’s shadow” saying further that “- it prevents us from achieving the life God intended when He endowed each of us with our own unique genius.”
I arm wrestle with resistance everyday. Some days it wins, like last week when I failed to post my weekly article for only the 3rd time in 5 1/2 years. OK, it was the day the Nuggets swept the Lakers, so a little slack is accepted.
There is little more gratifying than winning that wrestling match and breaking through the imposter syndrome and doing what is invariably a mix of discomfort, inconvenience, and doubt.
Just know that the resistance doesn’t want you spreading that wisdom around. It won’t get in the way of you letting it atrophy.
Genius? Who me?
Yep. You!
We were all born individual geniuses. It doesn’t take long for that to be squashed. Parents, peers, professors, pastors, physicians, politicians, and pundits team up with the media and Pressfield’s resistance to take it away in favor of conformity, comfort, and convenience.
The result is a learned mindset that puts a time stamp on our value.
Retirement by it’s very definition means to “retreat to a place of safety and security.”
Biologically, neurologically, physically – that’s not a good place to go. But, the temptation is great because of the disguise that the resistance puts on an environment that slows the learning process, leads to sedentary lifestyles, reduces social relationships, and encourages removal of a key component of longevity – work!
Don’t be a burned-down library.
There’s an African proverb that says:
“When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.”
What say, let’s spread our library around before it burns down. And, oh, by the way, it is going to burn down.
Keep learning. Keep stretching and pushing the edges. Help somebody. Be a rebel against the stale, illogical retirement model.
Favor us with your genius – it ain’t dead yet!!
When you’re 77 years old the word “fate” has a different meaning than when you’re 20 years old. When you’re 20 it means simply “the path you could choose…what will it bring?” When you are 77 it means, “the path you chose…what did it bring?” The former is subjective, full of hope; the latter is objective, full of facts. So it’s probably worthwhile to re-examine that word in the view of a 77-year old, n’est pas? I’m 77. So it’s my turn. Lend me an ear.
Fate is still a powerful motor propelling 77-year olds, but now I don’t mean the ‘path I chose’ but instead, the ‘path I go on choosing’ every single day. Because nowadays the returns don’t need 30 years to roll in, they arrive at once. For example, yesterday’s exercises made me stronger today; yesterday’s whisky made me weaker today. We clock up successes and failures at a faster clip. Fate for a 77-year old doesn’t mean “expiration date” but rather, the vivid scenario leading towards that point. I won’t mind being dead, but I do mind the dying part, the decline. Therefore, I listen to people like Peter Attia, who recently wrote this in the NY Times:
“Many people, I think, are underemphasizing strength training. There’s the sense that, Yep, I’m out there, I’m hiking, I’m walking. Those things are great, but the sine qua non of aging is the shrinkage or atrophy of Type 2 muscle fiber. /9
That’s the thing we probably have to guard most against, and you can’t do that without resistance training. (Count the number of times in human history when someone in the last decade of their lives said: “I wish I had less muscle mass. I wish I was less strong.” The answer is zero.)”
/9 Those are your fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are activated during shorter, more intensive activity like weight lifting. Type 1 muscle fibers are your endurance muscles.
In the first community we moved to after starting our family, we joined in the celebration of the great flock of eagles that arrived every spring. they had coffee for adults and games for kids, and some farmers had some produce for visitors..I was Service manager for a propane company, and the next year fed over 100 people with a Pancake breakfast on a big portable grill. That developed into a huge community breakfast with over 150 coming for that, then looking at the eagles. great social gathering. We later added a supper With more showing up fro miles around. The community made enough to add a full kitchen the length of the hall. which makes enough to pay for all community programs almost 30 years later.
For this and other community efforts we received a Remarkable Senior’s Award from our Province back in 2005.We also built up a Legion with brunches, dinners, dance nights, and card parties. Our last year there, we cleared $10,000 from meals alone.
Wow, I really like that! Great example of passing along the wisdom through social/community awareness.
Hi Gary,
I read The War of Art years ago. Thanks for the reminder of its important message. I Keep On Truckin’!
Hellow well I’m 69 will be 70 October son of a biscuit sorry 😐 had two knee surgery’s fantastic and a broken back I started the pandemic in the hospital 40 days the worst of my life came out no musel lost tons of weight and when I came home I took few months to be Abel to pick up 15 pounds one push up I know their is a god now end of story im doing 200 push ups a day 100 morning 100 night , 4 sets of , 25 started 4 sets if eight haind 15 pounds and added bicep tricip pull ups scuats. With out the resisting training it would takin longer to heal and my self confidence is great and eating well need more sleep his bless all. Resume I was in so much pain back recuperating surgery’s and skinny I still have pain but I’m feeling great
I read “when an old person dies a library falls to the ground”. The volumes that that belong to this website alone…I am delighted I found this site.